The first performance given by San Francisco Opera was La bohème, with Queena Mario and Giovanni Martinelli, on 26 September 1923, in the city's Civic Auditorium and conducted by Merola, whose involvement in opera in the San Francisco Bay Area had been ongoing since his first visit in 1906.

Merola launched the company in 1922, convinced that the city could support a full-time opera organization and not depend upon visiting companies, which had been coming to the San Francisco since Gold Rush days. In fact, Merola's initial visits to the city were as conductor of some of these troupes—the first in 1909 with the International Opera Company of Montreal. Continued visits for the next decade convinced him that a San Francisco company was viable, and in 1921 he returned to live in the city under the patronage of Mrs. Oliver Stine.

By the fall of 1921 he was planning his first season, which was presented at Stanford University's football stadium on 3 June 1922 with a star-studded group of singers, including Giovanni Martinelli in Pagliacci, followed by Carmen and Faust. While it was a popular and critical triumph, the five-day season was not a financial success. It was clear to Merola that a more solid financial base was needed, so he set about fund raising for a season of opera to be presented at the Civic Auditorium in the fall of 1923. Appealing to more than the city's elite, Merola raised 2441 contributions of $50 each from many "founding members".

After the opening of La bohème, the first 1923/24 season included productions of Andrea Chénier (with Benjamino Gigli), Mefistofele (again with Gigli), Tosca (with Giuseppe de Luca and Martinelli, and Verdi's Rigoletto (with Queena Mario, de Luca and Gigli). An international opera season had been launched, and the ones that followed it covered a broad range of mostly Italian operas, many being presented only once or twice in seasons lasting no more than two months, sometimes only the month of September.

During the nine years following the opening season, the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House was conceived. The building was designed by Arthur Brown, Jr., the architect who also created San Francisco's Coit Tower and City Hall.

San Francisco Opera programs, 1934-36

The company inaugurated the new opera house with a performance of Tosca on 15 October 1932 with Claudia Muzio in the title role. Characteristic of the following thirty of Merola's years as general director was the fact (as noted by Chatfield-Taylor) that "the great singers of the world came regularly to San Francisco, often performing several roles in deference to the short season and long travel time across the country."[1]

Other characteristics of his tenure were the opportunities given to young American singers in spite of the absence of a formal training program at that time, and also regular tours by the SFO to Los Angeles between 1937 and 1965, which expanded the season into November. However, until well after Merola's death, the main San Francisco season rarely extended beyond late October. He died while conducting an open-air concert at Stern Grove on 30 August 1953.

Edwin MacArthur led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in several 78-rpm recordings for RCA Victor in the late 1930s, including performances by soprano Kirsten Flagstad. Some of these were later reissued by RCA on LP and CD.

Short versions of all the works in the season were broadcast on about 30 California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia radio stations, starting about 1941.

Kurt Herbert Adler (1905–1988) came to the United States in 1938 after early experience and training in many aspects of music and theatre in Austria, Germany, and Italy. For five years, he worked to build the chorus of the Chicago Opera Company. Merola heard of him and, over the telephone, invited him to San Francisco opera in 1943 as chorus director.

Adler was often regarded as a difficult, sometimes tyrannical person to work for. However, as Chatfield-Taylor notes, "singers, conductors, directors, and designers came back season after season. They came back because Adler made the SFO an internationally respected company that ran at a high level of professionalism and offered them interesting things to do in a warm and supportive atmosphere." Among those who were offered new and exciting challenges were Geraint Evans, the Welsh baritone, Leontyne Price, and Luciano Pavarotti.

He took on more and more administrative details as Merola's health and energy diminished, but Adler was not the Board's natural choice to replace Merola at the time of his death in 1953. After three months of acting as Artistic Director, and with the assistance of its president, Robert Watt Miller, Adler was confirmed as General Director.

Adler's aims

Adler's aims in taking over the company were several. One was to expand the season which in Merola's time ran from the Friday after Labor Day until early November (when the Metropolitan Opera's season began) in order to capitalize on the availability of singers by presenting up to fourteen operas with two or three performances each. Eventually, as seen in the 1961 SFO season, eleven operas were given five or six performances each on average while the season ran to late November.

Another aim was to present new talent and, for this, he was tireless in seeking out up-and-coming new singers, whether American or European, by attending performances in both major and minor opera houses. He heard Leontyne Price on the radio, and offered her a role in Dialogues of the Carmelites in 1957, thus providing her with her the first performance on a major operatic stage. A short time later in the same season, she was to step into the role of Aida at short notice to replace Antonietta Stella, a role which gave her long-lived international acclaim.

Thirdly, a characteristic of the Adler years was his interest in developing stronger connections to opera stage directors in an attempt to strengthen the dramatic and theatrical elements of the works. In this, he was greatly supported by his long relationship with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, the often-controversial stage director and designer who began his association with SFO in 1957.

Merola Opera Program

Several innovations undertaken by Adler included the Merola Opera Program (named after the first general director). It began during the 1954/55 Season and was given its current name in 1957. The program now annually offers approximately 23 gifted singers, four apprentice coaches, and one apprentice stage director the rare opportunity of studying, coaching, and participating in master classes with established professionals for eleven weeks during the summer. Many went on to international careers, among them Carol Vaness and Thomas Hampson.

Opera in the Park

Another innovation was "Opera in the Park" which, since 1971, has been an annual free concert in Golden Gate Park on the Sunday following opening night of the Fall Season. It traditionally features artists from the opening weekend in full concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. The event is open to the public and draws some 30,000 listeners. The concert is presented in conjunction with the non-profit San Francisco Parks Trust and the San Francisco Chronicle Charities.

Success of the company

By the 1970s, the Company was highly successful and offered audiences the "cream of the crop" of internationally-known singers, but, with Adler often bringing in unknowns to make their American debuts or the surprise of well-known singers replacing ailing ones, there were some exciting nights at the opera. These included Plácido Domingo flying with no notice from New York City to San Francisco — albeit three hours after curtain time — to replace the ailing Carlo Cossutta on the opening night of Otello and the last-minute substitution by Leontyne Price for Margaret Price in the role of Aida.

From 1971 to 1979, San Francisco station KKHI broadcast the regular Friday night performances of the opera on AM and FM (in multiplex stereo with quadraphonic encoding). The broadcasts were hosted by several well-known announcers, including Scott Beach and Fred Cherry.

In the summer of 1972, the San Francisco Opera began its 50th anniversary celebrations with a special free concert in Sigmund Stern Grove. Adler conducted most of the program, which featured performances by many of the surviving singers who had appeared with the company during its history. The legendary tenor Lauritz Melchior conducted the orchestra, rather than sing, in a performance of the famous Radetsky March by Johann Strauss I; it was possibly his last public appearance. One of the highlights of the afternoon program was a moving performance of the love duet from Madama Butterfly with soprano Licia Albanese and tenor Frederick Jaegel.

Following Adler's retirement announcement in June 1979, Terence A. McEwen (1929 Thunder Bay, Ontario – 14 September 1998, Honolulu) was Adler's hand-picked successor. Growing up in the Montreal area of Canada, McEwen learned to love opera at an early age, listened to the Met broadcasts, and at age 14, made a trip to New York one winter break to hear several of his favorite operas, which included Bidu Sayão and Jussi Björling in Rigoletto. As a singer, Sayão was forever to remain his passion, one which was accentuated by seeing her in Manon performances in Montreal.

His passion for opera in general led him to visit the Royal Opera House in London and a lowly paid job with Decca Records in that city. Moving up the ranks in the 1950s, he landed in New York in 1959 and for the next 20 years made London Records, Decca's classical arm, the most significant classical label in the United States.

After being approached by Adler regarding the San Francisco opera job, he moved to the city in 1980 and involved himself totally in learning the running of an opera company. In January 1982 McEwen was running the SFO.

Given his expertise and background in understanding opera and the wonders of the human voice, it is not surprising that his approach in his early years was away from the theatrical side and more focused on singers. With his Ring Cycle which began in the Summer 1983 and Fall 1984 seasons — and which was presented in its entirety in June 1985 – McEwen demonstrated where his priorities lay: they were focused on hiring the best singers in the world.

As a reaction to the economic climate of the times, in 1982 McEwen, created the "San Francisco Opera Center" to oversee and combine the operation and administration of the numerous affiliate educational and training programs. Providing a coordinated sequence of performance and study opportunities for young artists, the San Francisco Opera Center included the "Merola Opera Program", "Adler Fellowship Program", "Showcase Series", "Brown Bag Opera", "Opera Center Singers", "Schwabacher Recitals", and various Education Programs. By introducing his young singers to the great voices of the past, inviting them to rehearsals, and giving tickets to current productions McEwen hoped to create rounded performers who could appear in the regular Fall season.

Among his successes in this regard was the mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick from Nevada. By "hand holding"" her through the various stages of training, he prepared her for the role of Azucena in Il Trovatore for the summer 1986 season to great acclaim.

During the 1983 Fall Season, the student/family matinee performances of La traviata were presented with supertitles. These are English translations of the libretto projected over the proscenium simultaneously with the action on stage. The overwhelmingly favorable response prompted the company to introduce the practice in increasing numbers of performances in subsequent seasons. Supertitles are now used for all San Francisco Opera productions and SFO also rents its supertitles internationally to other opera companies.

In 1986, Sir John Pritchard was appointed Music Director, and served until 1989.

On 8 February 1988, McEwen announced his resignation. The following day his mentor, Kurt Herbert Adler, died.

Lotfi Mansouri (b. 1929) was already a known quantity when Terry McEwen announced his retirement. Then head of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Mansouri had received an education in medicine in Los Angeles, but gave it all up upon becoming fixated on opera, first as a young tenor with UCLA's Opera Workshop, and then with opera in general.

As early as 1962, with Mansouri having found work as director in Los Angeles followed by his becoming resident stage director at the Zurich Opera, Adler came to see him at work and he was offered six operas to direct in the 1963 season. By the time he became General Director, he had directed 60 operas for SFO and many others elsewhere.

By 1975 he was director of the Canadian Opera Company where, in 1983, he had introduced the revolutionary supertitles. Mansouri's feelings on the effects of titling was that the audience would be more engaged in the performance. This changed the whole world of opera.[1]

One of Mansouri's triumphs was the overseeing of the reconstruction and renovation of the opera house following the October 1989 earthquake. After closing at the end of the 1995 Fall season for "a 21-month, US$88.5 million renovation, San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House reopened on 5 September 1997 with a gala concert celebrating this occasion, as well the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco Opera. Fittingly, the concert featured operatic greats of the past, present and future. The project included repairs of damage caused by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, improvements for the audience and performers, seismic strengthening and a general cleanup that left the 65-year-old Opera House gleaming."[3]

Donald Runnicles was named Music Director and Principal Conductor of SFO in 1990, and assumed the posts in 1992.

In November 1992, Mansouri introduced "Pacific Visions", an ambitious program designed to maintain the vitality of the opera repertoire through new commissions and the presentation of unusual repertoire. It was launched with the commissioning of the following operas:

Summing up his years at the SFO, the San Francisco Chronicle noted: "He's never been interested in the succès d'estime, the daring intellectual or theatrical coup that dazzles culture mavens but leaves the general public alienated or bewildered. For Mansouri, a success that doesn't put fannies in the seats is no success at all."[4]

Towards the end of the 2001 season, Mansouri announced his retirement after fourteen seasons with SFO and 50 years in the world of opera.

Pamela Rosenberg (de)'s first connection with the San Francisco Opera was as a standee while attending the University of California, Berkeley. She returned to SFO with a background of operatic productions in Germany and, specifically, as head of the Stuttgart Opera.[5]

In January 2001, Rosenberg announced her first artistic initiative for San Francisco Opera, "Animating Opera", a multi-year plan of interwoven themes and series. These included "Seminal Works of Modern Times", "The Faust Project", "Composer Portrait: Janáček/Berlioz", "Women Outside of Society: Laws Unto Themselves", "Metamorphosis: From Fairy Tales to Nightmares", and "Outsiders or Pioneers?: The Nature of the Human Condition".

After much controversy surrounding her management of the SFO, which included deficits created after the "dot-com" collapse in 2000 and the effects of September 11 on arts attendance, she announced in 2004 that she would not renew her contract with the Company when it ended in late 2005.

As noted by Steven Winn in the San Francisco Chronicle in December 2005, "Productions were scuttled or postponed in the face of a US$7.7 million deficit. Ambitious programming initiatives and plans for a second, smaller performance venue went by the wayside. Company-wide cuts pared 14 percent from the company's US$67 million budget in 2003."

He continued: "Embattled by financial woes and trying labor negotiations, Rosenberg was routinely blamed for problems that were largely beyond her control. Her taste for new and unusual operas and a European-honed aesthetic that favored brash and even radical reinterpretations of the classics, the thinking went, drove away audiences and donors and ran up costs in the company's hour of greatest need."[6]

After 33 years of directing the Houston Grand Opera, David Gockley became the SFO's General Director on 1 January 2006. As part of an announcement of the 2006/2007 season and the future of the company on 11 January, Gockley noted that "this season we debut a new visual identity and logo in keeping with a new artistic philosophy. I believe that it speaks of glamour, sophistication, tradition and innovation all things that infuse our plans for the future of San Francisco Opera."

In May 2011 it was announced that Gockley's contract was to be extended through SFO's 2015–16 season.[7] In October 2014 it was announced that Gockley would be stepping down from his post at the end of the 2015/16 season. His replacement was announced to be Matthew Shilvock in September 2015.[8]

San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera began a co-production of a new Ring cycle in 2006 directed by Francesca Zambello. The production used imagery from various eras of American history and had a feminist and environmentalist viewpoint. SFO presented Das Rheingold in June 2008, Die Walküre in June 2010, and three complete Ring cycles in June 2011. The complete cycles in June 2011 were conducted by Donald Runnicles and featured cycle role debuts of Mark Delavan (Wotan) and Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde) as well as Jay Hunter Morris (making his role debut in the title role of Siegfried) and Ian Storey (making his role debut as Siegfried in Götterdämmerung.

Technological innovations

In May 2006 Gockley oversaw SFOs first simulcast, a live broadcast of a mainstage performance of Madama Butterfly to San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza for a crowd of 8,000.[9] Subsequent simulcasts have been presented at Stanford University's Frost Amphitheater, four theaters in Northern California,[10] and San Francisco's AT&T Park. SFO's has simulcast nine operas to AT&T Park since 2007 that have collectively drawn more than 165,000 opera fans.[11]

The technology for the simulcasts and other innovations like OperaVision—a series of screens located throughout the War Memorial Opera House that project close-up shots of the action on stage—is made possible through SFO's Koret-Taube Media Suite. Completed in 2007, The Koret-Taube Media Suite is the first permanent high-definition broadcast-standard video production facility installed in any American opera house according to the company's website.[11]

In 2007, San Francisco Opera returned to regular broadcasts of its productions on national and international radio.,[12] and in December the Opera announced the presentation of four operas in movie theaters across the United States.[13] Following the initial presentation of the four operas in movie theaters in 2008, San Francisco Opera used these four titles to create its Grand Opera Cinema Series, making these titles available to be presented by performing arts centers, theaters, and universities. Since 2008 the company has added eight additional operas to the Grand Opera Cinema Series,[14] and they have been presented by KQED-TV with hosts Rita Moreno[15] and Joan Chen.

In September 2006, it was announced and reported that by mutual agreement with Gockley, Donald Runnicles would conclude his tenure as Music Director in 2009. However, he has maintained an association with SFO and conducted the 2010/11 production of Der Ring des Nibelungen as well as 2015's Les Troyens.[4]

On 9 January 2007, SFO announced its third music director would be the Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti, beginning with the 2009/10 season, for an initial contract of 5 years.[16][17] Luisotti made his SFO debut in 2005 with La forza del destino, and returned in 2008 to conduct La bohème prior to assuming the role of music director. In SFO's September 2009 program magazine, David Gockley announced that bringing on Luisotti as the company's music director was a large part of his goal to "reinvigorate the core Italian repertory that is San Francisco Opera's birthright." Gockley also stated that Luisotti would conduct three to four productions each season, including one non-Italian opera; since 2009 these non-Italian operas have included Salome, Lohengrin, and Carmen.

In January 2009, Gockley announced the reappointment of Patrick Summers as principal guest conductor[18] and named Giuseppe Finzi as the company's new assistant music director. Finzi was named as SFO's resident conductor in 2011.[19]

In order to consolidate its various office and work spaces scattered throughout San Francisco, SFO will take over the fourth floor of the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center once the building's retrofit is complete in 2015. To accomplish this, the company started a campaign to name various locations of the new space after donors in 2011. San Francisco philanthropist Dede Wilsey has pledged a $5-million gift, and the entire facility will be called the Wilsey Center for Opera. Designed by San Francisco architectural firm Mark Cavagnero Associates, the center will provide additional office space as well as costume storage; two multipurpose rooms for rehearsals, board meetings, and social events; and a 299-seat performance venue.[29]

1.
War Memorial Opera House
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The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California is located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue across from the rear facade of City Hall. It is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center and it has been the home of the San Francisco Opera since opening night in 1932. In 1927, $4 million in bonds were issued to finance the design. A colonnade of paired columns screens colossal arch-headed windows above a rusticated basement. The interior contains an entrance hall with a high barrel vaulted and coffered ceiling parallel to the street. The theater space is dominated by an aluminum and glass panel chandelier under a blue vault. The theater has 3,146 seats plus standing room for 200 behind the orchestra and this is smaller than the Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera, but it follows the trend of larger capacity in American opera houses than the main European opera houses of the 19th century. The San Francisco Symphony performed most of its concerts in the house, RCA Victor recorded the orchestra here, under the direction of Pierre Monteux, from 1941 to 1952 and in a special stereophonic session in January 1960. The orchestra also made a few recordings for RCA with Enrique Jorda in 1957 and 1958, in later years, the orchestra used a special acoustical shell that was placed around the musicians, greatly enhancing acoustics for concerts. The orchestras final concert in the house was an all-Beethoven concert, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the house was regularly blacked out and performances were monitored by air raid wardens. In spring of 1945, the United Nations had its first conference there, the UN Charter was later drafted and signed in the Herbst Theatre next door. Six years later in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco was drafted and signed here, during the years of Kurt Herbert Adlers general directorship, the inadequacies of the house became apparent as the season was expanded. In particular, there was a lack of space and rehearsal space. In 1974, The Pointer Sisters were the first pop act to perform at the theatre, in 1979 the backstage area was extended, followed in 1981 by the opening of a new wing built onto the house on the Franklin Street side. This gave spaces for sets, coaches, and dancers as well as administrative space. At the same time, the nearby Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall, with a stage the size as that of the Opera House, was opened as part of the complex which included the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. In 1989, the powerful Loma Prieta earthquake that shook the Bay Area caused major damage to the Opera House, at this time additional private donations were raised for extensive technical improvements. The organ is not needed with the completion of the nearby Davies Symphony Hall, an underground extension below the neighboring plaza to accommodate additional dressing rooms and backstage facilities

2.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush

3.
Stanford University
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Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Its 8, 180-acre campus is one of the largest in the United States, Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere. The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Stanford was a former Governor of California and U. S. Senator, he made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students 125 years ago on October 1,1891, Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanfords death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the country. There are three schools that have both undergraduate and graduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. Stanford faculty and alumni have founded a number of companies that produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires,17 astronauts and it is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. Sixty Nobel laureates and seven Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanfords previous Palo Alto farm, despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I, the Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which was established in 1962, in 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Besides the central campus described below, the university also operates at more remote locations, some elsewhere on the main campus. Stanfords main campus includes a place within unincorporated Santa Clara County. The campus also includes land in unincorporated San Mateo County, as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park, Woodside. The academic central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard, the United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP codes,94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P. O. box mail

4.
Carmen
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Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue and it is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmens love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. The depictions of life, immorality, and lawlessness. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent, Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883, thereafter it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, in the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capitals two main state-funded opera houses—the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent, Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in the absolute certainty of having found my path. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of Prosper Mérimées novella Carmen, Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years. Cast details are as provided by Mina Curtiss from the original piano, the stage designs are credited to Charles Ponchard. Place, Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills Time, Around 1820 Act 1 A square, on the right, a door to the tobacco factory. A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard, moralès tells her that José is not yet on duty and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later, José arrives with the new guard, which is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins. As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd, Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love. The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, as the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother. He reads that his mother wants him to home and marry Micaëla

5.
Faust (opera)
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The manager Léon Carvalho insisted on various changes during production, including cutting several numbers. Faust was not initially well received, the publisher Antoine Choudens, who purchased the copyright for 10,000 francs, took the work on tour through Germany, Belgium, Italy and England, with Marie Miolan-Carvalho repeating her role. It was revived in Paris in 1862, and was a hit, further notable revivals at the Opéra took place on 4 December 1893 and 25 January 1908. The popularity of Faust has declined somewhat, beginning around 1950, a full production, with its large chorus and elaborate sets and costumes, is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, particularly if the act 5 ballet is included. However, it appears as number 35 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide and it was Faust with which the Metropolitan Opera in New York City opened for the first time on 22 October 1883. It is the eighth most frequently performed there, with 747 performances through the 2011-2012 season. It was not until the period between 1965 and 1977 that the version was performed, and all performances in that production included the Walpurgisnacht. Place, Germany Time, 16th century Fausts cabinet Faust, a scholar, determines that his studies have come to nothing and have only caused him to miss out on life. He attempts to kill himself with poison but stops each time when he hears a choir and he curses science and faith, and asks for infernal guidance. Méphistophélès appears and, with an image of Marguerite at her spinning wheel. Fausts goblet of poison is magically transformed into an elixir of youth, making the aged doctor a handsome young gentleman, at the city gates A chorus of students, soldiers and villagers sings a drinking song. Valentin, leaving for war with his friend Wagner, entrusts the care of his sister Marguerite to his youthful friend Siébel, Méphistophélès appears, provides the crowd with wine, and sings a rousing, irreverent song about the Golden Calf. Méphistophélès maligns Marguerite, and Valentin tries to him with his sword. Valentin and friends use the hilts of their swords to fend off what they now know is an infernal power. Méphistophélès is joined by Faust and the villagers in a waltz, Marguerite appears and Faust declares his admiration, but she refuses Fausts arm out of modesty. Marguerites garden The lovesick boy Siébel leaves a bouquet for Marguerite, Faust sends Méphistophélès in search of a gift for Marguerite and sings a cavatina idealizing Marguerite as a pure child of nature. Méphistophélès brings in a box containing exquisite jewelry and a hand mirror and leaves it on Marguerites doorstep. Marguerite enters, pondering her encounter with Faust at the city gates, marthe, Marguerites neighbour, notices the jewellery and says it must be from an admirer

6.
Tosca
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Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900 and it contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, as well as some of Puccinis best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardous play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. Tosca premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances, despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public. Musically, Tosca is structured as a work, with arias, recitative, choruses. Puccini used Wagnerian leitmotifs to identify characters, objects and ideas, the dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas. Many recordings of the work have been issued, both of studio and live performances, the French playwright Victorien Sardou wrote more than 70 plays, almost all of them successful, and none of them performed today. In the early 1880s Sardou began a collaboration with actress Sarah Bernhardt, Puccini had seen La Tosca at least twice, in Milan and Turin. Ricordi sent his agent in Paris, Emanuele Muzio, to negotiate with Sardou and he complained about the reception La Tosca had received in Italy, particularly in Milan, and warned that other composers were interested in the piece. Nonetheless, Ricordi reached terms with Sardou and assigned the librettist Luigi Illica to write a scenario for an adaptation, in 1891, Illica advised Puccini against the project, most likely because he felt the play could not be successfully adapted to a musical form. When Sardou expressed his unease at entrusting his most successful work to a new composer whose music he did not like. He withdrew from the agreement, which Ricordi then assigned to Alberto Franchetti, Illica wrote a libretto for Franchetti, who was never at ease with the assignment. There are several versions of how Ricordi got Franchetti to surrender the rights so he could recommission Puccini, by some accounts, Ricordi convinced Franchetti that the work was too violent to be successfully staged. Franchetti family tradition holds that Franchetti gave the work back as a gesture, saying. American scholar Deborah Burton contends that Franchetti gave it up simply because he saw merit in it. Franchetti surrendered the rights in May 1895, and in August Puccini signed a contract to control of the project. According to the libretto, the action of Tosca occurs in Rome in June 1800, Sardou, in his play, dates it more precisely, La Tosca takes place in the afternoon, evening, and early morning of 17 and 18 June 1800. Italy had long divided into a number of small states

7.
Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè

8.
Rigoletto
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Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi samuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time and it is considered by many to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdis middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his court jester Rigoletto. The operas original title, La maledizione, refers to the placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter had been seduced by the Duke with Rigolettos encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda likewise falls in love with the Duke, Verdi was commissioned to write a new opera by the La Fenice opera house in Venice in 1850. By this time he was already a composer and had a degree of freedom in choosing the works he would prefer to set to music. He then asked Francesco Maria Piave to examine the play Kean by Alexandre Dumas, père, Verdi soon stumbled upon Victor Hugos five-act play Le roi samuse. He later explained that The subject is grand, immense, and there is a character that is one of the greatest creations that the theatre can boast of, in any country and in all history. It was a controversial subject, and Hugo himself had already had trouble with censorship in France. As Austria at that time controlled much of Northern Italy. Hugos play depicted a king as an immoral and cynical womanizer, from the beginning, Verdi was aware of the risks, as was Piave. In a letter which Verdi wrote to Piave, Use four legs, run through the town, correspondence between a prudent Piave and an already committed Verdi followed, but the two underestimated the power and the intentions of Austrians and remained at risk. Even the friendly Guglielmo Brenna, secretary of La Fenice, who had promised them that they would not have problems with the censors, was wrong, at the beginning of the summer of 1850, rumours started to spread that Austrian censorship was going to forbid the production. The censors considered the Hugo work to verge on lèse majesté, in August, Verdi and Piave prudently retired to Busseto, Verdis hometown, to continue the composition and prepare a defensive scheme. They wrote to the theatre, assuring them that the doubts about the morality of the work were not justified but since very little time was left. Verdi was completely against this solution and preferred instead to have direct negotiations with censors, arguing over each. At this point, Brenna, La Fenices secretary, showed the Austrians some letters and articles depicting the bad character but the value of the artist

9.
Coit Tower
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Coit Tower, also known as the Lillian Coit Memorial Tower, is a 210-foot tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The tower was proposed in 1931 as a use of Coits gift. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 29,2008, although an apocryphal story claims that the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle due to Coits affinity with the San Francisco firefighters of the day, the resemblance is coincidental. Coit Tower was paid for with money left by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, before December 1866, there was no city fire department, and fires in the city, which broke out regularly in the wooden buildings, were extinguished by several volunteer fire companies. Lillie Coit was one of the eccentric characters in the history of North Beach and Telegraph Hill, smoking cigars. She was a gambler and often dressed like a man in order to gamble in the males-only establishments that dotted North Beach. Lillies fortune funded the monument four years following her death in 1929 and she had a special relationship with the citys firefighters. At the age of fifteen she witnessed the Knickerbocker Engine Co, after that Lillie became the Engine Co. mascot and could barely be constrained by her parents from jumping into action at the sound of every fire bell. After this she was riding with the Knickerbocker Engine Co. 5, especially so in street parades and celebrations in which the Engine Co. participated, through her youth and adulthood Lillie was recognized as an honorary firefighter. Two memorials were built in her name, one was Coit Tower, and the other was a sculpture depicting three firemen, one of them carrying a woman in his arms. Lillie is today the saint of San Francisco firefighters. The San Francisco County Board of Supervisors proposed that Coits bequest be used for a road at Lake Merced, Art Commission President Herbert Fleishhacker suggested a memorial on Telegraph Hill, which was approved by the estate executors. An additional $7,000 in city funds were appropriated, the winner was architect Arthur Brown, Jr, whose design was completed and dedicated on October 8,1933. Coit Tower was listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark in 1984, browns competition design envisioned a restaurant in the tower, which was changed to an exhibition area in the final version. The design uses three nesting concrete cylinders, the outermost a tapering fluted 180-foot shaft that supports the viewing platform, an intermediate shaft contains a stairway, and an inner shaft houses the elevator. The observation deck is 32 feet below the top, with an arcade, a rotunda at the base houses display space and a gift shop. The Coit Tower murals were done under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, olmsted Jr. Jose Moya del Pino and Frede Vidar

10.
RCA Records
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RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. It is one of SMEs three flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, blues, jazz, the companys name is derived from the initials of the labels former parent company, the Radio Corporation of America. It is the second oldest recording company in US history, after sister label Columbia Records, RCAs Canadian unit is Sonys oldest label in Canada. It was one of only two Canadian record companies to survive the Great Depression, kelly, Enrique Iglesias, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Giorgio Moroder, Jennifer Hudson, DAngelo, Pink, Tinashe, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Zayn and Wizkid. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor but retained use of the Victor Records name on their labels until the beginning of 1946 when the labels were finally switched over to RCA Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper His Masters Voice trademark, in Shanghai, China, in 1931, RCA Victors British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board, in September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33⅓ rpm records sold to the public, calling them Program Transcriptions. In the depths of the Great Depression, the format was a commercial failure, during the early part of the depression, RCA made a number of attempts to produce a successful cheap label to compete with the dime store labels. The first was the short-lived Timely Tunes label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward, in 1932, Bluebird Records was created as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a blue label. In 1933, RCA reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label, another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced. The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and Bluebird Records still survives eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued, RCA also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s. Besides manufacturing records for themselves, RCA Victor operated RCA Custom which was the leading record manufacturer for independent record labels, RCA Custom also pressed record compilations for The Readers Digest Association. RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1935, but EMI continued to distribute RCA recordings in the UK, RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV classical recordings on the RCA and HMV labels in North America. During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC were severed, the Japanese record company is today called Victor Entertainment and is still a JVC subsidiary. From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, virtually all union musicians could not make recordings during that period

11.
Leontyne Price
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Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, she rose to acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s. Time magazine called her voice Rich, supple and shining, it was in its capable of effortlessly soaring from a smoky mezzo to the pure soprano gold of a perfectly spun high C. A lirico spinto soprano, she was considered well suited to the roles of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. After her retirement from the stage in 1985, she continued to appear in recitals. In October 2008, she was one of the recipients of the first Opera Honors given by the National Endowment for the Arts, Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi. Her father James worked in a mill and her mother Katie was a midwife who sang in the church choir. They had waited 13 years for a child, and Leontyne became the focus of intense pride, given a toy piano at the age of three, she began piano lessons with a local teacher. When she was in kindergarten, her parents traded in the family phonograph as the payment on an upright piano. At 14, she was taken on a trip to hear Marian Anderson sing in Jackson. Meanwhile, she visited the home of Alexander and Elizabeth Chisholm. Mrs. Chisholm encouraged the early piano playing. During World War II, Price worked as a maid in the Chisholms household where she was allowed to play the piano. Mrs. Chisholm noticed her singing voice and accompanied her in several early recitals. Aiming for a career, Price enrolled in the music education program at the all-black Wilberforce College in Wilberforce. Her success in the club led to solo assignments. She sang in the choir with another singer, Betty Allen. With the help of the Chisholms and the famous bass Paul Robeson and she won a scholarship and was admitted to the studio of Florence Page Kimball, who would remain her principal teacher and advisor throughout the 1960s